


The Caffrey Identity

by EmilieHardie



Series: Promise Of A Better Life [1]
Category: Alex Rider - Anthony Horowitz, White Collar
Genre: Crossover, Crossover Fusion, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-15
Updated: 2014-01-15
Packaged: 2018-01-08 20:16:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1136915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmilieHardie/pseuds/EmilieHardie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Of all the theories on Neal Caffrey's past, the truth still end up stranger than fiction. Because who would have thought that charming, violence-averse Neal used to be a spy and an assassin?</p><p>*White Collar and Alex Rider fusion*</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Caffrey Identity

**Author's Note:**

> I've always loved White Collar but the reveal about Neal's past was kind of 'meh'. It just felt to me that the way the show portrayed Neal, it should have been something more epic. Like that fact that he's Alex Rider.
> 
> This fic is basically my way of trying to reconcile Alex and Neal as the same person.

"You are a particular kind of bastard!" - Curtis Hagan to Neal Caffrey, Pilot (White Collar 1x01)

 

* * *

 

There were a thousand different ways that Alex Rider could have escaped from prison. If there had been no other factors involved, not even the super max prison he had been sent to could have held him for more than a week. Unfortunately for Alex but fortunately for the collective egos of the American penal system, there was one major factor inhibiting Alex, a factor that went by the name of Neal Caffrey.

In other words, the only thing that was stopping Alex from escaping was himself, the personality he had created being very good at escapes but not quite as good as Alex. Neal Caffrey didn't do athletic escapes that required amazing ability and nerves of steel; Neal Caffrey did smart and careful. Sure, Neal's plans also required nerves of steel but it was far less about imminent death and more about not getting caught.

When Neal decided to escape, to make sure that Kate was okay, he knew that the very first person who would be called in would be Peter. If there was even a whiff of Alex about the escape, Peter would call bullshit and start digging. More importantly, because Peter was always digging, he would be digging in places that Alex didn't want looked at.

He knew that he had been pushing it with hot-wiring the car but had to hope that Peter would put it down to the misspent youth he already assumed Neal had. He was right in a way – Peter was always right, if only in a way – which is why Neal thought that he would be able to slip it past Peter. It was a good plan, and he didn't really have the time to be more careful.

He missed Kate anyway.

Arriving in the empty apartment, he knew that he could track her down. He had been a hell of an agent back when he was a teenager and he had added a lot more skills to his arsenal. But the tracking, that would have to be Alex and Alex would have to be the one to confront her.

It had been Neal that she had fallen for.

 

* * *

 

“I see Kate moved out.”

Peter had been quicker than Neal had expected but then Peter was always quicker than Neal expected. The banter had been the same as ever, right up until the point when Peter had asked if he was carrying. Neal's response had been truthful: he didn't like guns and he wasn't carrying. The thing was, if he really wanted to take Peter down, he wouldn't need a gun. Alternatively, he would need a gun but he wouldn't need to be anywhere near Peter when he did.

He couldn't help the scoff that came out when Peter complimented him for 'only' taking a month and a half to escape.

Wrangling the meeting had been a spur-of-the-moment decision but Alex had long since learned to trust his gut. Neal was good at improvisation, there was no doubt about that, but he was a polished and practised con artist. There had been nothing practised about the information he had given Peter but he had forgotten how much he liked the agent.

And both Neal and Alex wanted out of prison, and not only to find Kate.

 

* * *

 

Alex Rider could take a lot when it came to accommodation – he had survived the thing in Bangkok after all and he was pretty sure that no one was going to try to dissect him – but Neal Caffrey was notoriously picky. Don't get him wrong, Alex liked nice things as much as the next guy but, for all his whining, he could have the survived the motel.

He doesn't think he could have survived not knowing June. He might have been the thief but it had been June who had taken Neal's heart. That was okay though, it seemed like a fair price for the room and the suits, though if he had been in June's place he would have held out for Neal's soul.

For those suits, Neal would have sold it, too.

The lecture form Peter had been annoying, all the more because it had been about getting something for nothing, as though Alex hadn't already paid sevenfold for anything he had. It was all he could do not to roll his eyes like a teenager all throughout the lecture, but figured that would put him squarely in Peter's bad books.

He thought it had gone well.

 

* * *

 

It had gone well, right up until the point when Neal had tried to help Peter.

“You do not get to lecture me on relationships! My wife didn't change her identity and flee the country to get away from me.”

It had been a slap in the face. Sure, it was true but Peter didn't have to say it like that. (Not that there was anything wrong with fleeing the country; Alex had done it more times than he could count.)

More than that, it had been a reality check. That was what Peter thought of the matter and he felt like he could say it because Neal was a criminal and therefore not deserving of basic courtesy. It was, as Peter had said, harsh but there had been no actual apology forthcoming.

 

* * *

 

“That bottle was a promise of a better life.”

Once, Alex had thought that being someone else was the answer to all his problems. More than a decade later, he knew too well that the problem was that, even when he was someone else, he was still Alex and he could never stop running. That made it hard to have a normal life for more than a few years and there wasn't a whole lot of careers open to him.

The cons had started small, street cons to make ends meet. Just until he was on his feet, just until he knew what he was going to do next. Except the better life he had promised himself had never materialised so he had joined up with Mozzie and thrown himself into a life of crime.

It might not have been the better life that he wanted but, if that was all he could ever have, he would sure as hell enjoy it.

 

* * *

 

“That sounds like inch thick lexan.”

If Peter had been there, he would have wanted to know how Neal knew what bullet resistant plastic sounded like. But Peter wasn't there; that was the whole point. Neal was cheeky but Alex had missed that part of being him, taunting the bad guys with no regard to his own personal safety. Just another thing to enjoy about working for the FBI so, when Hagan said that he hoped what Neal was getting as worth it, he had replied that it was.

Not even he could have said whether that answer belonged to Alex Rider or Neal Caffrey.

Nor could he have said which enjoyed it more to see strait-laced Agent Burke look so incredibly gleeful despite the loophole abuse that the rules had been put through.

And that final “maybe I'm not trying hard enough”?

That was just for fun.


End file.
